Olympics go for change!!

Vladimir Zworykin after inventing television had said, “I didn’t even dream it would be so good. But I would never let my children come close to the thing”. Though these words were intended to mean something else, however, they do speak the emotions of refugees who will be participating in upcoming Olympics.

While the world organisations are lending helping hands to refugees, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will be providing some refugees a chance to participate in the upcoming 2016 Games. “I think we are all touched and moved by the magnitude of the current worldwide refugee crisis. The Olympic Games are the time when the values of tolerance, solidarity and peace are brought to life. This is the time when the international community comes together for peaceful competition,” IOC President Thomas Bachsaid.This plan was first announced last year the IOC in United Nations General Assembly.

This time the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro has drifted from its age old tradition of torch relay of athletes marching in under the flags of the nations they're representing. For the first time there will be a new team that will have no flag to call its own and no country to call their own – Refugee Olympic Athletes (ROA).

The torch relay for the Olympic Games, that will be held in August, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro will also have a stop at a refugee camp in the Greek capital, Athens, where a refugee will carry the torch, the IOC announced.

The IOC has earlier this yearpublicilyidentified three refugee athletes. They are: RahelehAsemani (Iran) – Taekwondo (proposed by the Belgian NOC (National Olympic committee)); MisengaPopole (Democratic Republic of the Congo) – Judo (proposed by the Brazilian NOC); Yusra Mardini (Syria) – Swimming (proposed by the German NOC). Recently a press conference in Berlin was held wherein one of the atheletes – Yusra Mardini recounted her treacherous journey and how she got selected by\ the Olympics committee.

Like many others Syrians, Yusra Mardini and several members of her family travelled across Lebanon and Turkey, and then endured a potentially life-threatening passage to the Greek Island of Lesbos before beginning their travels across numerous European borders before arriving at the German capital.

Soon after arriving in Germany, Yusra was introduced to Wasserfreunde Spandau 04, a swimming club based near her refugee centre. She also mentioned her days of training as a swimmer. “The war was hard; sometimes we couldn’t train because of the war. Or sometimes you had training but there was a bomb in the swimming pool,” she said.

Bach says, "Having no national team to belong to, having no flag to march behind, having no national anthem to be played, these refugee athletes will be welcomed to the Olympic Games with the Olympic flag and with the Olympic Anthem. They will have a home together with all the other 11,000 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees in the Olympic village."

This new team, ROA, as the committee say “will be treated at the Olympic Games like all other teams”. “By welcoming the team of Refugee Olympic Athletes to the Olympic Games Rio 2016, we want to send a message of hope for all refugees in our world,” Bach said. 

“In the Olympic Village we see tolerance and solidarity in their purest form. Athletes from all 206 National Olympic Committees live together in harmony and without any kind of discrimination,” he said while adding “We want to give the refugees the opportunity to mix with each other. Here you saw refugees from Syria, from Mali, from Sierra Leone, from Iran, from Iraq, all playing together with us and really showing a small Olympic community here in this camp”.

The team will get an entourage, including Chef de Mission, coaches and technical officials, by the IOC to meet all the required technical needs. The uniforms will also be provided by the IOC.

To what drove them to this step, Bach recollected his visit to the refugee camp in Athenswhere he played soccer with a group of young men, and met potential candidates who could compete for the first time as refugee athletes at the Rio Games.

“At present none of these athletes would have the chance to participate in the Olympic Games even if qualified from the sports point of view because, with their refugee status, they are left without a home country and National Olympic Committee to represent.

The ROA team is expected to number between 5-10 athletes. The full list of the participating athletes will be announced by the IOC Executive Board in June.

Bach had also announced that the Hellenic Olympic Committee  would receive an additional sum for the regeneration of the Moria Football Stadium on Lesbos (it is a prime landing spot for those fleeing conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan) island for use by the thousands of refugees there.

At a time when the lakhs of people from Syria are struggling to enter their new phase of life while their hearts are weeping for their old homes, this news definitely needs a thumbs up and salute to the Olympic Committee.Jacques Rogge, IOC's honorary president, who is also the UN's Special Envoy for Youth Refugees and Sport, rightly says "Sport can heal many wounds. Sport can bring them hope; can help to forge their ideas and to integrate in society.”